7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
More than Skin Deep, September 11, 2001
This review is from: Skin Deep (Mass Market Paperback)
Nina Moore faces many of the same obstacles that many African-American women face. She's in a relationship that she believes has run its course. She's employed at a university who's just beginning to recognize the importance of African American's contribution to society and is having to fight tooth and nail to make sure the university commits to increasing opportunities for African American students and faculty. She comes from a loving family, of a jazz musician father, a loving mother and funny, bright brother. She is trying to strike balance in her life while continually reconciling with herself and to others the fact that she's not like all the other "sisters" because she is trapped in a white woman's skin.
Skin Deep explores the prejudices of both blacks and whites against African Americans who are on the lighter end of the color spectrum. Nina reveals these prejudices from her fiancé' Derrick who's with her because she looks white, Ahmad, who loathes her (in the beginning) because she looks white and the white administration she works with who promote her over her dark skinned best friend, because she's more palatable to their taste. However the question of color runs deepest for Nina who has a degree of self-loathing because she is so different from other "sisters". A recurring nightmare is a product of that fear but is also a key to the secret of who she really is. Her parents explained to her that she was the product of an affair that her father had with a white woman. But the truth comes out in dramatic fashion during a deathbed confessional.
Skin Deep is a slow read at the beginning. The reader may get the feeling that this is one of those typical black vs. white, light is right diatribes. However Cross skillfully weaves into the mix, how lies, drugs, the criminal justice system and racism can affect the dynamics of family life.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Bold and Sizzling Romance Novel, February 23, 2002
This review is from: Skin Deep (Mass Market Paperback)
Nina Moore is 100% sistah. However, to the world, she appears to be white despite the fact that 1/2 of her heritage is African American.
Nina wants acceptance and she struggles to find it.
The world questions her identity as an African American woman.
Her current man Derrick is color struck and she is haunted by
a recurring nightmare.
Nina meets Ahmad who has an imperfect past. He's now trying to make good by raising her daughter.
A slow deep friendship develops between Nina and Ahmad. They later take their friendship to the next level.
Nina's nightmare does not end until she discovers the truth about her past. A truth that will almost shatter Nina's world.
Skin Deep is a bold and sizzling romance novel. It delves not only into race relations, but also, intra-race relations within the African American community.
I would highly recommend this book.
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14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
SKIN DEEP - A BOOK YOU WILL DEFINITELY KEEP!, April 10, 2000
This review is from: Skin Deep (Mass Market Paperback)
To read ova and ova and ova again!
Ms. Kathleen Cross has a dynamite novel on her hands.
Prior to reading this author's work I thought I had been catapulted to the pinnacle of romance mountaintops via the writing of such big guns as Rochelle Alers, Bette Ford, Gay G. Gunn, Brenda Jackson, Evelyn Palfrey, Donna Hill, Sandra Brown and Terry McMillan, just to name a few. And the brothas that also launched me to those mountaintops, we can't forget them either, such as Eric Jerome Dickey, E. Lynn Harris, James Earl Hardy, Louis Edwards and Michael Baisden.
Well, guess what Yall, we have to build more mountaintops and put Ms. Cross along with the greats. Just imagine all of the above greats rolled into one with Donna Hill leading the pack for her mystery input and you come up with Ms. Kathleen Cross. I told you this woman is dynamite (say it like JJ used to say it on "Good Times").
It's hard to believe that this is the sistah's first time out in the literary arena. You have just got to give her major props for this book.
Get ready to have your head blown completely off your shoulders. This woman's pen is loaded down with mind-blowing dialogue. On the cover of the book Ms. Rita Ewing astutely lets us know what type of writer Ms. Cross is. The book is "filled with the best ingredients: love, intrigue, conflict and hidden secrets." Well, anyone who is privileged to read "Skin Deep" had better put on your safety belts before getting on the roller coaster of emotions that Ms. Cross has in store for you.
Take a ride through the caverns of hidden secrets (and there are many); get slam dunked in the bed of LOVE, then ride through the underworld of intrigue, and we finally exit into the world of conflicts (again, there are many) - but not necessarily in that order.
Now lets wrap the whole package around a stellar cast, created by the one and only Kathleen Cross. Meet Nina Moore - a black woman sealed in a white body; Ahmad Jefferson - a beautiful black specimen who has been wrongfully imprisoned for "5 years, 3 months, 4 days and six hours" (and when you read how he gets slam-dunked in the bed of LOVE you'll recognize the effect of this imprisonment). This brotha wants nothing more than to forget about the harm he encountered at the hands of white people who professed to love him. Now put this in the mix - Nina sets her sights on this fine brotha from the gitty up (getting you interested in reading this book)? You can imagine the conflicts which will arise out of this situation.
Now meet some subordinate cast members, but very important ones to the story, and each in their own way creates much drama. Mitchel Moore - Nina's father, Tonya - Nina's best friend (is black and looks black) Nathan - Nina's half brother and the creme De La creme supporting cast member, Morris Michaels.
The plot that brings Nina together with her man/apart from her man and..., and the reasons surrounding this mismatched, star crossed couple will keep them on your mind long after you've read the last punctuation mark and have you wishing that there was more to read.
The ending will blow you out of romance heaven, as never before captured on paper.
The poem by one of the characters I neglected to mention (Rasheed Steele who is Tonya's lover) is so real and pertinent to our people as it puts forth what was taken from us by a people who never had it themselves will have you reflecting on its importance for a very long time. Please, Please, Please just buy the book and experience and breathe this woman's work of art. I assure you, you will not be disappointed.
Though I share all of my books with ten other people, I'm going to buy another (or maybe even two more) to keep, just in case this one never makes it back to me. The book is all that!
By the way, I wish the people putting the pictures on the covers of these novels would take the time to read the book so the faces would coincide with, or at the very least, resemble what the author depicts in the written word. I'm open for the job!
We are not dumb. We know a light skinned black woman (as depicted on the cover of the book) from a woman that could easily travel on the other side and they wouldn't even know it unless we told them (or rather Ms. Cross). The publisher would have done better by using the picture of Ms.Cross herself. I definitely had trouble recognizing our own there.
I hope you readers get to read my opinion. I know its long, but it will surely get more book sales for Amazon.com and also Ms.Cross.
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